Yes, Washington D.C. Really Is a Bubble

In this week’s issue of the magazine, Andrew Ferguson has a look at how out of touch us Beltway denizens really are. Ferguson doesn’t go into all the reasons why DC is so wealthy — like the BRAC base closings that relocated thousands of troops to local bases, the supplanting of half of Wall Street in the wake of TARP and the explosion of lobbyists over the last decade — but he does give a good flavor of the city. In the decade I’ve been here, D.C. has not only rapidly gentrified but suddenly, in the past two years, D.C. residents have developed a taste for extremely expensive cars. It’s not unusual to see a Maserati or Lamborghini rolling up Pennsylvania Ave. these days. My favorite uber wealthy ridiculous scandal of late: the building of a Versailles-like chateau that has northern Virginians up in arms.